


14,000,606

by BardofHeartDive



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Canon Rewrite, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity Gems, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:54:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22784413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BardofHeartDive/pseuds/BardofHeartDive
Summary: Dr. Stephen Strange saw 14,000,605 outcomes before the Battle of Titan. But, when it comes to time, the possibilities are infinite.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	1. Steve Rogers

**Author's Note:**

> This fic would never have been completed without the love, support, and encouragement of the foxiest [bioticfox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ayambik). Thank you so much for everything, hon. Also many, many thanks to my lovely beta [Kate_Shepard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kate_Shepard). All of the errors are mine.

“On your left.”

There’s so much static on the com-line Steve can barely make out the words but the meaning comes through loud and clear. After all, Sam does what he does only slower. 

A circle of runes and symbols appears at Steve’s left but Sam is not the first one through. Instead it’s T’Challa, flanked by Shuri and General Okoye, all kitted out for the battle before them. “Yibambe!” the King of Wakanda calls and his people, hundreds of warriors with the Dora Milaje at the forefront, answer, “Yibambe!” 

Five, then ten, then fifty more portals appear, each bringing a wave of support. An army of monks, each spinning their own rings of golden light. What remains of the Asgardian forces, led by a Valkyrie on an honest to God winged horse. Spider-Man, Tony’s kid from Queens, swings in with the Guardians of the Galaxy and Dr. Strange. Ant-Man’s giant form erupts from the ground, freeing Rocket, Rhodie, and Hulk. Wanda joins Sam in the air, along with the Wasp and Pepper in her own suit of power armor. 

And Bucky.

Bucky is there with a rifle in his hands and that means they have not yet reached the end of the line.

“Avengers,” Captain America says, marking each of them with the title and all that it holds. “Assemble.”

He’s not sure who leads the charge, who starts the battle cry, but in a moment he is running. Thor is on his right, Black Panther on his left, Iron Man just above them. They crash like a wave into Thanos’ forces. He loses himself in the rhythm of the fight, too focused to catch more than flashes of the action around him. A deafening roar as Scott, still the size of a skyscraper, punches one of Thanos’ flying beasts out of the air. T’Challa darts and weaves then explodes with purple energy, while his sister fires blue light from gloves she no doubt designed as well. Tony and Pepper orbit each other like twin stars, spinning blinding beams that tear through the darkness. He finds himself beside Thor again and catches Stormbreaker as it arcs around him.

“No, no. Give me that,” Thor says, offering him the hammer as he reaches for the axe. “You have the little one.”

They exchange weapons and Thor is gone, calling lightning down upon the enemy. One of Strange’s monks, a plain-looking woman with black hair who had been fighting near them stops at the sight of him. 

“You wield Mjolnir?” she asks as he lobs the hammer past her shoulder, into the enemies behind her. He calls it back and it returns to his open palm, which seems to be answer enough. She moves on as Clint’s voice comes through his helmet.

“Cap! What do you want me to do with this damn thing?”

“Get those stones as far away as possible,” he says but Banner intercedes.

“No! We need to get them back where they came from.”

“No way to get them back,” Tony says. “Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel.”

“Hold on.” Scott this time. “That wasn’t our only time machine.”

And in the midst of a battle with the world in the balance, a horn playing “La Cucaracha” rises above the noise.

“Anyone see an ugly brown van out there?”

“Yes,” Valkyrie answers from the sky. She points with her sword, the shining steel cutting a clean line into the thick of the enemy. “But you’re not going to like where it’s parked.”

Tony spares them a quip about not liking anything about the current situation and goes straight to the point. “Scott, how long you need to get that thing working?”

“Uh, maybe ten minutes.”

“Get it started. We’ll get the stones to you.”

“We’re on it Cap,” Hope answers.

Steve tries to follow the glove through the fight. Hawkeye to Black Panther, Black Panther to Spider-Man. Passing it forward, like a baton that will decide the fate of everything. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Wanda face off with Thanos, and, judging by the crimson power licking around her, he does not envy the Mad Titan. She breaks his blade, rends his armor, and Steve dares to hope for a moment that it will end there. But then Thanos’ Sanctuary looses its cannons, raining fire on Avengers and Black Order alike. Every shield, every barrier, every force field, moves from forward to up. One of the missiles breaks the dam, but Steve’s attention is taken by Peter’s voice through the comms:

“Help, somebody help!”

He scans the battle, eyes finally settling on a group of Outriders piling on top of the kid while eight mechanical spider legs try, with limited success, to fend them off. Mjolnir thrums in his hand and he calls “Hey, Queens, heads up” before throwing it toward him. Peter’s hands miss but his web is quicker. He pulls free, flying through the air, dragged by the hammer, and Steve loses sight of him as Sanctuary’s beams double down. His shield barely covers him, broken as it is, but he huddles underneath it while the ship lays waste to the field, heedless of friend or foe.

And then it stops. Everything stops.

A moment of silence washes over them as the guns change their target, not toward the ground anymore but away from it at a line of fire streaking through the sky. It slams into the ship, through it, then curves back up and through again. A marvel indeed.

“Danvers,” he says, as the ship crashes into the water. “We need an assist here.”

He watches her descent, guessing where she will land, and makes his way there through the fray. A group is forming around her, all but two of the fiercest, strongest women he’s ever met, and even when he sees the line of enemy regrouping against them, he isn’t worried because she’s got help. With a single, quick thrust Okoye kills Corvus Glaive. Scarlet Witch and Valkyrie take down two more of the Leviathan. And Danvers is off, a bolt of light, carving her way through whatever stands in her path. Thanos runs headlong to meet her but is stopped by Pepper, Shuri, and Hope’s energy beams, and Captain Marvel flies past him. Hopeless to catch her, he throws his blade like a javelin, straight into the back of Scott’s van.

The time machine explodes, the resulting shock wave sending Danvers, the gauntlet, everyone and everything, tumbling backward. Steve is knocked off his feet and rolls, only stopping when he crashes into a piece of rubble. His head spins and for a fraction of a second he’s not sure where he is or when, and then he realizes that Tony is down and Thor and both his weapons are tangled up with Thanos and he leaps onto the titan’s back, trying to help pull Stormbreaker into his chest.

With a roar, Thanos punches the flat of the axe away. He headbutts Thor, hard enough to stagger even the Prince of Asgard, then reaches behind him. A hand on his collar pulls Steve over Thanos’ shoulder and he is thrown to the ground. Thanos rolls with him, his weight adding to the momentum, making it hard to breathe, hard to think, hard to - his fist slams into Steve’s head and he doesn’t have to think anymore.

He comes to in time to see Thanos pull the power stone out of the gauntlet and punch Captain Marvel with a glowing purple fist. He has to get up, has to stop him, but the handful of feet between them might as well be a million miles and he knows he’ll never make it.

Then he feels a hand on his arm. The monk from before whispers “come with me,” as if he has a choice as her magic flashes around them and the next thing he knows they are falling on top of Thanos’ massive arm. The two of them scramble to get the gauntlet off him and somehow she manages it. She tries to give it to him but just as his fingers brush the metal Thanos catches her robes and yanks her back. He lifts her off the ground and shakes her like a ragdoll. The gauntlet slips out of her hand and he catches it, then tosses her aside before sliding it back onto his hand.

Thanos snaps and an expression strangely akin to peace washes over his face before he realizes that absolutely nothing happened. 

Still crumpled on the ground, the monk says, “And so the sun rises once more.”

A shimmer of green magic washes over her and her form shifts into Loki, Trickster and Mischief-maker. A matching flicker of green and the gauntlet on his hand reverts back to a simple fabric glove, seams split around his giant hand. The Mad Titan blinks at it, at Loki, and then follows his attention behind him, where Captain America has slipped his hand into the real Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos manages to whisper “no” before the lines of colored light begin running from Steve's hand up his arm and all over his body.

The sheer power of it burns like Erskine’s serum and Steve can almost hear Peggy on the other side of the medical pod, yelling for them to shut it down. But, just like then, a voice rises over everything else, the voice of a little guy from Brooklyn who was too dumb not to run away from a fight, who had a hero’s heart long before he had the body to go with it.

_ “No! Don't! I can do this.” _

There is a world beyond this pain. The world that Vision and Natasha died for, where Clint gets his family back and Tony gets to keep his. He can see it, New Asgard flourishing, Wakanda’s influence spreading beyond its borders, the safety and security of the people of Earth and across the galaxy. Nebula teaching Gamora to be the sister she taught her to be in the first place. Peter being a kid who gets to become an adult. That world is the worth of this power and he has only ever wanted to stand between those who have lost respect for strength and those that need compassion.

He plants himself like a tree and snaps.

The change is subtle at first. He remembers it from five years ago, or maybe a lifetime, in Wakanda. An unnatural silence. A shift in the wind. And then the dust. Thanos is still there, watching the inevitable crumble around him, in such a state of disbelief he doesn’t seem to notice when he, himself, begins disintegrating. Steve doesn't see him actually disappear, though. Everything fades out, then back in, and he simply finds himself propped against a piece of rubble by Sam.

“Okay.” Sam's voice shakes as badly as his hands as they try to peel away the destroyed layers of Steve’s suit. “Okay, okay, okay. Let's just take a look . . . ”

Steve can’t feel the arm anymore, which is honestly a blessing, but there’s a tingling ache radiating from it, across his chest, down his side, up his neck. His throat is sandpaper dry and his skin feels burnt and brittle.

“Sam.” He searches with his other hand until his fingers close around the straps of his shield. It seems heavier now and he drags more than lifts it as he passes it to Sam. “I want you to - ”

“No.” Sam’s voice is hard as he cuts him off but threatening to shatter. “No, that’s yours. That’s  _ yours _ . And you’re gonna be fine. We just need to . . . We just need . . . ”

“It’s broken.” Steve continues, pressing the shield toward him again. “It needs fixing. But I know you’re the one for the job.”

“I . . . ” His voice does crack then but he is stronger for it. The broken pieces settle into something stable and he nods through his tears. “I’ll do my best, Cap.”

“That’s why it’s you.”

“Steve!”

Sam barely manages to get out of the way as Bucky comes crashing to his knees at Steve’s side.

“Bucky.” Steve’s smile only emphasizes how pale his lips have become. He reaches forward with his now-empty hand but can’t quite lift it to Bucky’s cheek. Bucky catches it though, in a grip that would probably be too tight if he could feel it properly. “You okay, Buck?”

“Yeah, Steve. I’m okay. I’m good.”

There’s something he wants to say but he can’t get the words straight in his head. It starts to worry him but then Bucky’s face comes into focus again - when did it go out? - and he gives him a tear-streaked smile.

“I know,” he says. Despite being made of metal, the hand on Steve’s cheek is warm and gentle. “It’s okay. I know.”

That’s all Steve was waiting for. He thinks he hears music and it crosses his mind that he owes someone a dance.


	2. Epilogue: Tony Stark

We won.

It’s an easy thing to say. 

So much easier than the “thank you”s and “I’m sorry”s that maybe aren’t as obvious. Gratitude, regret. They’re harder feelings than pride.

Still, it’s not a complete victory. Not yet. Our reality may have won but there are six others that need to be saved. Branches clipped and all that. 

Bruce sets up the quantum tunnel and Thor places Mjolnir on the platform next to me. I slide my empty hand through the leather loop at the end of the handle. Don’t have to lift it necessarily, just make sure it stops at the right time.

Time machines are at least as worthy as elevators it seems.

“Going quantum in three. Two. One.”

* * *

I pop into a room in Asgard’s palace in front of a giant, broken window. The exact time and place the Reality Stone left. I’m uncomfortably close to a regal woman I realize with a start but she merely raises an eyebrow at me.

“You’re . . . not who I was expecting,” she says.

“Yeah, I’m guessing you were looking for your son. Sons.”

“No. Not this time.” Her eyes travel to the case with the stones. “I can take care of that for you. If you like.”

I shrug and open the case. Saves me some time. As soon as the Reality Stone is free it reverts to . . . “an angry sludge thing,” is surprisingly accurate. With a flutter of her fingers and flick of her wrist, it disappears. I nudge Thor’s hammer with my toe. It doesn’t move.

“I’d offer to put that somewhere but.”

“It will get where it needs to go.”

“Great. Well, this has been fun but I’ve got a few more returns scheduled so - ”

I raise my wrist to set my Pym particle for Morag but she puts her hand on my arm to stop me.

“One parent to another,” she says. “It’s okay to be grateful to have more time with them. Self-sacrifice isn’t the only way to love.” Her hands move up to take my shoulders and she gives them a squeeze of encouragement. “You won.”

* * *

Morag is not the place I’d pick for a summer home but I guess it could be charming. In a Lost in Space meets Raiders of the Lost Ark, booby-trapped-and-trying-to-kill-you kind of way.

I step gingerly over an unconscious Star Lord lying face-down in the mud. Rhodie definitely did me a solid knocking out the dancing queen on his way through. I put the Power Stone back in its fun ball and the fun ball back in its tube system of doom.

“We won,” I remind myself on my way out. “Not entirely sure how,” I add, eyeing the half-god, but what matters is that we did.

* * *

“Welcome Anthony, son of Maria.”

Barton told me to expect a red-faced ringwraith when I got here, so you can imagine my surprise when the voice is not only a woman’s, but a familiar one.

“Nat?”

“Hey, Tony.”

“It worked,” I say, because I can’t think of anything else to say. “We won.” 

She smiles, the most peaceful smile I’ve ever seen on her face. “And you’re here to return the stone.”

“And bring you back,” I blurt. It’s not entirely true, I wasn’t planning on it but there’s no reason not to. “If you’re here and we have the stone . . . we can bring you back.”

“That wasn't the deal.”

“So we make a new deal!”

“Not this time, Tony. We won. It’s okay.”

“Like hell it is!” The edge in my voice surprises even me and I realize I’m shaking. “Tell me something, tell me this. The Soul Stone requires a sacrifice, right? Lose what you love to gain what you seek, all that crap. But I know what Thanos did to his ‘daughter,’ his ‘favorite daughter.’ I heard firsthand accounts from Go-Go-Gadget and I don’t get how any father could do that to his daughter. How anyone could possibly consider that love. Least of all an all-knowing stone that makes you kill the people you care about to decide if you’re worthy of it!"

“It was never about Gamora,” Natasha says. The fact that she agrees with me only makes me more angry. “Thanos only loved himself, the idea of himself as a good father who had his children’s best interest at heart when he abused and tortured them. He didn’t sacrifice his daughter; he sacrificed the illusion of himself as a better man than he ever was.”

“And he only had to murder her to do it,” I manage through gritted teeth. “It’s not right. She deserved to live.”

“She did.” She offers me her palm but when I put the stone in it she grips my hand, covering it with her other one. “So do you, Tony.”

She presses a kiss against my cheek and I wake up in a puddle wanting nothing more than to get off this godforsaken planet and back to New York. Even if it is the wrong year.

* * *

The good doctor seems significantly more normal after meeting his mentor, less “strange” and more “eccentric and slightly odd.”

“You won,” she says, though I can’t tell if it’s a question or a statement.

“Just like Bruce said we would,” I confirm, presenting her the Time Stone. 

“Just as Strange foresaw,” she replies.

The best I can give her is a noncommittal grunt. I was watching him when Cap and Loki fell out of the sky and he was just as surprised as the rest of us. I don’t tell her that though, no reason to shatter her fragile sense of absolute certainty.

“Anyway, as promised, one Time Stone delivered at the exact moment it was taken. Like it never left. Want to give me a signature for proof of delivery?” She eyes me and I feel her raise her eyebrow, even though it doesn't move. “No? Fine. How about a ride uptown?”

* * *

If I had known that travel via magic palm to the sternum would be about as pleasant as riding a bull on a tilt-a-whirl drunk, I probably would have just walked. It does add to my performance, though, when I approach the tower in a stumbling run, waving the scepter like a moron, and channelling my inner Fay Wray.

“Help! Help! I need some help here!”

It doesn’t take long for the team of Shield/Hydra goons to find me. Rumlow reaches me first and has to duck as my flailing “accidentally” swings it at him.

“What the hell are you doing with that?” he demands.

“Cap was right!” I say, playing up my panting in an Oscar-worthy performance. If I do say so myself. “They tried to steal it! Three guys in black. He went after them! That way!”

“Murphy, Lewis, Cook with me,” Rumlow orders. “Hughes, get that away from him and secure it, would you?”

Four of them head off in the direction I picked at random while the fifth approaches me, reaching for the scepter. “If you don’t mind.”

I look around at the ruins of New York, then back to the Hydra agent in front of me, and hand it over. I say, “We won.”

“The battle,” he says, not recognizing the threat for what it is. “The war is still going.”

“Hail Hydra,” I answer, then excuse myself to find a place to disappear in.

One more stop and the war will be well and truly finished.

* * *

Sneaking in to Camp Lehigh is even harder than sneaking out, largely because the initial sneaking in, which then led to the sneaking out, raised security. But I have the benefit of time travel and future technology, so despite the high alert I make it down to the vault without issue.

Last stop on the list and then home.

The door is still open - I did slice into it not fifteen minutes ago after all - and I have the tesseract half in place when I hear a gun cock behind my head.

“Stop right there,” says a woman with an upscale British accent.

“Stop . . . putting it back?” I ask. “‘Cause I thought you’d want it. I can take it though, if you want. I mean, actually, I can’t because the whole fabric of time and space thing but - ”

“Oh, pipe down,” Peggy snaps. “You’re returning the tesseract?”

“Yes, that’s what I said. Fabric of time and space, weren’t you listening?”

She lowers her gun a fraction of an inch and, more importantly, takes her finger off the trigger. “Well then. Get on with it.”

“And you’re just . . . going to watch?” She purses her lips and shifts her weight and I just know she is reconsidering not shooting me. “Okay, okay. Watch me.” I finish sliding the cube into its place and seal the vault. “There. Happy?”

“I’ll be happy when you’re gone.”

“That makes two of us.”

I raise my hands then slowly point to my wrist. Her gun inches back up but she lets me input the time stamp for home. 

“We won.” I tell her as my helmet pops into place. “ _ He _ won.”

Her eyes go wide and then I lose sight of her in the quantum tunnel.

* * *

I pop back into the present five seconds after I left, minus six stones and one hammer. I’m sure there’s some avenging somewhere that could be done but I put that aside, scoop up my daughter, and tell her something even easier than “we won,” truer than “thank you” and “I’m sorry”:

“I love you 3000.”


End file.
